Claimant
by sister dark
Summary: My house has ruled the elemental galactic Empire since the reign on my grandfather. The reign of my son, Atreaus, heir-apparent is in peril. So, I do what I must, though I abhor it, and put myself once more in his debt; I hunt for Riddick.
1. Aereon's Prologue

Riddick. Man and Myth and Mystery, the embodiment of a race near extinct. To defy was his nature, to be a forsaken messiah, well, that was his unlucky fate.  
  
Elementals count the odds. I would like to claim I knew Riddick, knew his motives and machinations, but that would not be truth. I would have played against myself, and elementals are nothing if not cautionary. He was given an empire, and he gave it back. I believe his exact words were;  
  
"Take your dogma, Take your ship, and get the fuck away from me."  
  
Furions. Defiant to the end. He left, and would not return, no matter how many envoys were sent to him, trying to convince him, persuade him.  
  
Most did not return.  
  
The last he was seen wandering on one of the outlying systems, trying not to get himself noticed. Still running from mercs and Necromongers alike. Hunted, since birth. He would always be hunted, Riddick, and now I, Aereon, was about to join the pack.  
  
We elementals claim to be neutral. I suppose we are, on a universal scale. However, in our own galactic politics, neutrality is simply a façade for sly maneuvering and ruthless coup d'etats. My house, the line of Tear, has ruled the elemental galactic Empire since the reign on my grandfather. The reign of my son, Atreaus, heir-apparent is in peril. So, I do what I must, though I abhor it, and put myself once more in his debt; I hunt for Riddick, because the odds tell me he above all, will be the one to save my own inexorable race from itself. 


	2. Familiar

A/N: Okay, so first Riddick Fic. Be gentle with me people....I love reviews, so feel free to go nuts! (even if you don't like it....I can take it...)  
  
The sound of the cruiser's engine had alerted him, a low, soft thrum signaling the distance from the hunted. Riddick retreated from the small tongue at the cave's mouth back into the comfort of darkness.  
  
It was either more mercs, or more Necros, and he wasn't too fussy on either one. He'd been lucky enough to find a small planet on the outer rim of a fairly uninhabited system, riddled with caves, and just perfect for setting up booby traps. Not many had made it past his outer defenses, and those that did, well, he took the liberty of ghosting himself.  
  
It'd been a year, and yet they still couldn't grasp the concept that all he wanted in this whole fucking eternity was to be left the fuck alone. That's it. That was all. When he saw Kyra again, things might have changed...but Kyra was dead now. Whatever could have been, could have changed, well, it hadn't. And it wasn't about to now.  
  
He sat. He waited. They had entered the tunnels, the thrum of the engine manifolds becoming more pronounced as they echoed through the hollow hills. "Not bad," Riddick muttered.  
  
He had risen from his crouch, trying to puzzle out why this all seemed damn familiar. Soft, barely there footfalls sounded in the tunnel behind him. To any man who wasn't a good merc or a good killer, it would have gone unnoticed, but it registered in Riddick's senses. He drew a curved knife unobtrusively from his belt, coming around lightning quick to meet the intruder, knife poised to draw through his throat at any moment.  
  
"Toombs." He stated, "Been a while. Thought I told you to take the money," his free hand grappled the hilt of his other blade, whirling it through his fingers as he brought it to meet the second merc, doing a piss poor job of sneaking up behind him. The blade slashed across his chest in one long red line, welling with blood. It wasn't deep, but it wasn't exactly shallow either. Riddick pivoted, bringing the butt of his dagger down on the man's temple, effectively putting him out of commission.  
  
Toombs didn't even finish pulling the safety on his rifle before Riddick's blade pierced his throat. He wasn't stupid. He learned from his mistakes, hence the six man crew this time, though five were on the cruiser. Ergo, Toombs lowered the gun, a "fuck you" grin plastered on his scruffy face. His teeth were crooked, and he had a new scar, just down the line of his jaw, trailing off onto his neck. His breath smelled bad.  
  
"Let's pretend I'm a sentimental guy," Riddick began conversationally. "Now as a sentimental guy, I would at least let you tell me why the fuck you risked you torn-up ass to come back for a con you've lost twice?"  
  
"I took the money." Toombs replied with a nonchalance belied by his white knuckle grip on the gun.  
  
"Whose money?" he questioned, drawing a small warning line along the merc's throat, beginning to dot with blood.  
  
"Aereon's. Empress of the Elemental system." Toombs mumbled, wincing as the knife pierced deeper.  
  
"Fuck." Riddick muttered, dragging the blade harshly across Toombs' neck.  
  
"STOP! There's more! Holy FUCK Riddick!" He cried, trying to step backwards. Cool metal greeted his abdomen, and he settled for clutching his neck, sticky with blood. "There was a message! That was the fucking deal. The money as long as I gave you the message."  
  
"Well?" Riddick queried, not giving quarter to the familiar merc.  
  
"She said she can make the mercs and the Necros quit hunting you, so long as you go to Jebusi Minor to hear out her proposition. No more fucking hiding Riddick. It's worth it." Toombs added, shifting his weight to his other foot, trying to put more pressure on his wound at the same time.  
  
"So, you've given me the message, now you can just leave, and still pick up, full contract?" He asked, sheathing his knives.  
  
"Yeah. Pretty sweet deal. I ain't gonna push for more. Last time I did, I got this," he fingered the long, puckered scar creeping along his jaw and neck.  
  
Riddick's iron hard expression wavered, barely a second, and he turned. "Is anything worth being under her thumb?"  
  
"It's worth it to be left the fuck alone. You know Elementals don't break their promises very easy, something to do with playing against the odds."  
  
The looming figure of Riddick was silent for a moment. He'd lost none of his corded muscle in the last year, if anything; he was sharper, toned with a burning hunger barely traceable through his cloudy white eyes. He was wolf-like, wary of all but himself, and generally for good reason.  
  
Riddick pivoted, his eyes glowing as he lumbered forward with a canine gait. "Fine. We take your ship."  
  
A garbled moan rose from the rustling figure on the ground, the man's eyes watching with a startling hatred as Riddick ambled by. 


	3. Contracts

Toombs decided to introduce the new crew, a nice little six man team, not as skittish as the last he'd brought to tangle with Riddick.  
  
As he readjusted his goggles, Toombs began to rattle off names. "This one here's Handsome Dan," he stated, pointing to one ugly motha-fucka near the side, "the girl is Shirley, Koda's beside her, he's a bit jumpy. Don't sneak up on him, you might just find yourself greeted by six inches of knife-steel,"  
  
Riddick grinned, slow and dangerous as he took the man's extended hand. "You remember last time Toombs? I warned you about the skittish ones."  
  
Toombs refrained from answering, though a strained look passed across his vision. "Daviidic, and the one you slashed is Kells." Riddick's grin fell off his face, and his whole manner became even more ominous. The fucker was sitting there like he owned the world, knew some secret no one else knew, as if he just fucked the captain's daughter. There was something about Kells that set him off, just twinged an almost forgotten nerve. He'd kill him, maybe not right now, but something told him that one was better off dead.  
  
"So what are we waiting for? You mercs ain't got no other cons to pick up?" Riddick asked, quirking the side of his mouth in a derogatory fashion. "Let's get this pile of junk movin'. I ain't gonna stay longer with you than I have to."  
  
Jebusi Minor was a moon, not really a planet at all, however, it was the seat of elemental power, and the place where Riddick might actually be able to get some fucking answers. Maybe even get some results. He smirked at the thought. Not likely. No one ever seems to give a fuck about escaped cons.  
  
His thoughts drifted back to Kyra as they began their descent, and hoped her death hadn't been for nothing. Before their first fateful meeting, he had been something he didn't like to remember. He had been a monster, and sometimes he still was, sometimes you had to be, there was no way around it, not if you wanted to survive. But that planet, with Kathryn and Imam and Kyra-jack back then, it had changed him, given him some small amount of faith in humanity as a sentient, feeling race, even if he wasn't really apart of it.  
  
And then he'd seen her again, in Crematoria, and somehow, even though she had changed and grown up, more damaged and broken than ever, somehow, she'd made him care. Somehow, she'd made him more human, and sometimes he fucking hated her for it. Like now, when he thought about it again. He'd had a year to grieve, a year to take his revenge, killing any Necros that crossed his path. Sometimes he reverted back to his most primal animalistic self, and once, once he'd cried. It still hurt, thinking about her, thinking about how he could have saved her, but there was no use dwelling on what might have been. Because it was now, and it was now that mattered.  
  
He was brought through a web of tunnels that weaved under the sprawling city of Hassan, noting and memorizing passage ways and connections, counting the miles until they emerged on a hidden room, well inside the Imperial palace.  
  
32 miles. Riddick told himself as he circled the room, looking as out of place as a bull in a china shop. His gait spoke of an innate danger, Aereon noticed, gliding through the room to stop beside him. She was always a little taken aback by his uncanny ability to predict where she was, it was an awareness she deemed equal to reading energy fields, but she couldn't be sure of it, nor did she really care to test it on one so precarious.  
  
"Cozy little place you got here Aereon." He said by way of introduction.  
  
"Why thank you. It's been in my family for generations. But surely you are not interested in that, are you Riddick?" The white haired elemental questioned, a latent knowing present in her voice.  
  
"Well, now that you mention it, why the fuck am I here Aereon?" He inquired aggressively.  
  
"Because you wanted to be, I made no move to force your hand. You are here of your own free will. However, the reason I made the offer, well, that is no so simple." She gestured to the thin whicker chairs, and sat, gesturing to Riddick to do the same.  
  
"It's never simple with you is it?"  
  
"Rarely." She answered, continuing. "You see, we Elementals have been on the brink of civil war for centuries upon end, mostly due to the manufacture of the great houses, many use the populace as tools, manipulating and bending them until they snap like twigs. Rebel forces roam on all the moons, and quite a few make their base on the planet itself. My House, the House of Tear, has since the reign of my grandfather been on the throne, put on by the people, by the rebels, and have begun to mend relations through the houses. However, there are other forces who would welcome civil strife, and malcontents who would see to undue the peace we have accomplished simply for a chance to the throne. To that end, they have poisoned my Son, Atreaus, in small obsequious doses of some unknown poison, and his life is hanging on by a thread. Atreaus, before his poisoning, was a well respected figure, hedging revolts, and gaining an almost hero status with the populace. With Atreaus on the throne, odds of a civil war remain minimal, and if calculations prove correct, could begin the process of military stand down, maybe even create a senate. It is what we hope for, but I fear it shan't come to pass."  
  
"So where does I fit into all this?" Riddick questioned, unimpressed by her speech.  
  
"Before Atreaus, I had an affair with an off-worlder, I never knew his origins, but you remind me of him greatly. This was not something looked well upon by anyone, so we kept it secret. There was, however, a child born of the union. A daughter. I could not keep a half-breed child with me, and expect any amount of respect, no one had even known of my pregnancy. So after her birth, I sent the child away, to live in a city on the farthest moon, Purim, where I assumed she'd be safe enough. I was mistaken. Somehow, someone found out. I suspect still that it was House Shahdra that found her whereabouts, and abducted her. I searched for sometime, until the ministers and the governors began to question me about it. They still knew naught, and I had to keep it that way or loose my footing on the throne. The odds are quite high against it, but if it is true, I know you will be the one to bring her back alive, Riddick."  
  
"It never ceases to amaze me," Riddick mumbled, sighing, and running a hand across his shaved head.  
  
"What?"  
  
"That there are people more heartless and depraved than I am in this universe," He chuckled, leaning back in the whicker chair.  
  
Aereon's eyes narrowed and wrinkles puckered her forehead, though she chose not to comment, her offense was clearly noted in her posturing.  
  
"What's her name?" Riddick offered, gauging the situation.  
  
"I don't know. I never named her." Aereon responded, watching as Riddick grew withdrawn and a seething resentment smoldered in his cloudy eyes. He pulled down his goggles.  
  
"I guess I have one thing to thank my mother for," He stated, his words biting, "A name."  
  
"Will you take it? I offer you freedom from everything you so despise. I'll even allow you to ask something of me if you bring her back, a favor if you will. Anything you want, within reason. Just bring her back for me. I can train her to the throne, teach her all she needs to know. The odds are in her favor if she returns, given the alternative," The elemental announced.  
  
"So you want me to find a girl with no name, bring her back here, so you can use her like you use me?" Riddick asked, his voice laced with fury.  
  
"You came of your own free will. I simply offered you freedom. I'm offering her an empire," Aereon advanced, gliding smoothly toward him, hoping to convince him of her truthfulness.  
  
Sometimes he thought that by being so far from human for so long had allowed him to see through their machinations and plotting, maybe it was true. He smirked, and answered, "If that's what you wanna call it..." "Will you do it?"  
  
"Will you get the mercs and Necros off my ass?" Riddick questioned, his utter threat hidden lazily behind his nonchalance.  
  
"If you take the offer, I shall. But only then Riddick." She parried.  
  
"Fine. But I'm not your fucking lap-dog. I ain't gonna come when you call. And if you try to cross me, I'll hunt you like a hound from hell. We both know I ain't squeamish about blood, whether it's yours or not, don't make a hell of a lot of difference to me. Your dear son, if he pulls through or your daughter. I'll take that favor, but you'll be paying it in blood of you don't hold on your end of the bargain." 


End file.
